LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Conservative government is setting out a pre-election policy slate including tougher sentences for criminals and measures to tame…
Britain’s Conservative government is setting out a pre-election policy slate including tougher sentences for criminals and measures to tame inflation and boost economic growth at the grand State Opening of Parliament on Tuesday.
King Charles III will read out a speech, written by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, outlining its legislative plans for the next year.
It’s almost certainly the last such speech before a national election, and Sunak’s first chance to set out major legislative plans since he became prime minister just over a year ago. The last session of Parliament opened in May 2022, when Boris Johnson was prime minister and Queen Elizabeth II sat on the throne.
Charles became monarch when his mother died in September 2022 after a 70-year reign. He will deliver the first King’s — rather than Queen’s — Speech since 1951.
The parliamentary opening ceremony is a spectacular pageant that reflects the two sides of Britain’s constitutional monarchy: royal pomp and political power.
The day began with scarlet-clad yeomen of the guard searching Parliament’s cellars for explosives, a reference to the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in which Roman Catholic rebels led by Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the building with the Protestant King James I inside.
